From Alaska to Florida...or not?

Since I wrote my first blog couple weeks ago, I've been super duper occupied with packing up last things in Paris, Texas into three vehicles we took to Corpus Christi. I’m curious to see how many miles and how long it took since I travelled a crap load within three weeks. Let’s start off when I left for my bridal shower back in end of May.

1,120 MILES, 16 HOURS AND 6 MINUTES

            In the end of May, I said my good byes to my co-workers at Cozy Cappuccino after working with them for five months. It was a Wednesday when my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and I left for North Dakota. It was also the last time I would see Nick until Independence Day weekend.

            On the way up there, we were unsure if we needed to stop at a hotel overnight or be hardcore women that didn’t get enough sleep to drive straight through. We were basically driving across America the vertical way, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota and North Dakota. We decided to go with the being hardcore women, because we’re that hardcore. We didn’t get to Grand Forks until 3 am, all weary and exhausted but we made it!

784 (ish) Miles, 14 HOURS AND 15 MINUTES

            Once the weekend was over in Grand Forks, my sister and I boarded Amtrak to Chicago, and it was an overnight train so we slept and we slept good. I wasn’t sure how many miles it was so I just estimated how many miles it would take if we drove back to Chicago. We only crossed two state lines to get to Illinois, which were Minnesota and Wisconsin.  

893 MILES, 13 HOURS AND 18 MINUTES          

Mid-July, Nick and I departed back to Texas to finalize the plans for our wedding. There are two states in between, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Illinois.  We left at a decent time in the AM and arrived to Texas at nighttime. With a busy wedding prep week ahead, sleep was the utmost priority.  

Little Bit snoozin'

Entering Missouri and seeing the glorious arch! 

 617 MILES, 9 HOURS AND 37 MINUTES

            With three cars fully packed, 9 people including a furry animal, rose up at 2 am to pack last things in the vehicles, get comfortable and the parade of three white cars drove out towards the sun at 3 am.  While driving to Gulf Shores, we crossed Arkansas for a bit, Louisiana, Mississippi, and got to Alabama. We also crossed the Mighty Mississippi River and saw tons of trees, I mean TONS. We stayed in Gulf Shores for a week and it was adventurous, so many new things, the beach were gorgeous and the wedding day was blissfully perfect, minus the humidity.

Trees, trees and more trees!

Crossing the Mighty Mississippi! 

Once we got to Alabama, we rolled down our windows and instantly we felt the humidity! 

Our gorgeous view of the week <3

 195 MILES, 3 HOURS AND 23 MINUTES

            On Friday after our wedding, we went to New Orleans to drop our friends off at the airport (insert sad face meme) and we all dreaded leaving each other. We left super duper early in the AM and all 6 people crammed into a car that would only fit 5 people. We all jokingly thought have one person in the trunk but we didn't so don't worry!! One of our good friend drove because he was the tallest and it was uncomfortable for him to be in the back. His girlfriend sat in the front while two of our friends sat in the back, one was hungover from having too much fun. My BFF and I were struggling to find our comfortable position until we figured it out, the left side of my body was sitting on top of her while my right side sat atop of my hubby and needless to say it was fun. 

194 MILES, 3 HOURS AND 17 MINUTES

             New Orleans was sweltering hot. And smelly, especially in Bourbon Street. My hubby, my friend and I parked in a parking garage with Hilton hotel and walked throughout the hotel to get to the heart of New Orleans. We didn't have much time due to dropping another friend off at the airport so we all power walked in the stifling heat and we were drenched with sweat. Bourbon Street wasn't what I imagined, maybe that's because we were there during the day. It was filthy, trash everywhere, sewers reeked of urine, vomit, alcohol and other things. Another bad perspective of Bourbon street is that they have absolutely NO water in some of the restaurants and the restaurants were poorly neglected of cleaning the bathrooms. I didn't go in but one of our friends went in and took one look and bolted out of there. Once we heard what happened, we all left that restaurant and looked for another. Thankfully, we found another one that had water, we all were dehydrated after walking in sweltering heat. 

I wonder when was Bourbon letters were put in concrete?

French buildings in Bourbon St/French Quarter

Loved the greenery on this building

Saw these blue lights and thought it was unique

Palm trees everywhere <3

            

620 MILES, 9 HOURS AND 55 MINUTES

            We left Gulf Shores with sun on our noses, salt water inside our skins and so many memories that will be remembered for a lifetime. On our final day, my best friend of 5 years and I saw dolphins surfacing near our beach house and naturally, I got super excited because I love love love dolphins. They’re majestic creatures that are brilliant, sleek, and lovable. It was amazing to see dolphins thanks to my friend for grabbing my attention! (You know who you are ;)) But I won’t miss the icky humidity that’s for sure.

One of many gorgeous sunsets in Alabama

527 MILES, 7 HOURS AND 50 MINUTES

            This was it. We’re actually leaving Nick’s family house to live on our own. Both of us were nervous naturally but we were ecstatic to live on our own, to see where this journey will take us. This was also our final long road trip for a while (Thank God!). Friday Nick and I packed three vehicles again and by the end of the night, both of us were exhausted and hit the sack. We woke up at 3:30 am to pack up our last things and hit the road at 4 am. We arrived to Corpus Christi at 2 pm and unloaded everything from our three vehicles, Nick’s parents were staying with us and I’m grateful for their help with the move.  Corpus Christi is amazing, even much better than I expected it would be.

            Let’s add the miles and the time I’ve spent driving within three weeks, shall we?  Four thousand and five hundred sixty one miles total, I could drive from Juneau, Alaska to Key West, Florida with ONLY 4,570 miles!  See for yourself (link)!! The time I’ve spent on the road is 74 hours and 221 minutes and that time would be the same for driving across North America. Crazy, isn’t it?! Although I have to admit, that trip would be awesome to partake with friends and my hubby.